Ambler Extended Care Center

The primary reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it received an elite inspection grade. Its inspection score was far better than its overall grade. In our inspections category, we gave this facility an A. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection ratings. One critical factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some of these can be relatively insignificant. While this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This tells you that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.

One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing rating. In fact, nursing proved to be its second best category grade. In that area, we gave this facility an B-. In computing our nursing scores, we look at both staffing levels and the training levels of those nurses. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics. While this place got docked a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, it fared well in this area. This is often an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a system of moving a patient at least once a day.

This nursing home was given its third highest category grade in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a grade of B- in this category, which is a decent grade. Our short-term care ratings are critical for people in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically mandates additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a broad spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Unfortunately, we weren't able to locate information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Finally, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

The final area we graded is long-term care. For this category, we awarded this nursing home a C. Long-term care ratings are vital for prospective residents needing personal care. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination statistics. We were disappointed to learn that this nursing home vaccinated a relatively low 67.07317 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Nevertheless, this place was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.